Transition and Recognition of Artists Rather Than Factories in the Studio Glass Movement

Sep 8, 2017
Issue 2791

As noted in Gardner’s Portrait of A Glass Maker in analyzing Mr. Carder’s Studio Period 1932-1963, at page 33 the author describes Mr. Carder after he had “to relinquish command of the Steuben Division”.

“The studio in which Carder the artist not only designed the glass but built the furnace and produced the glass was an American harbinger of the so-called Studio Glass Movement initiated in the 1960s by Dominick Labino and Harvey Littleton. …. All of this feverish activity not only served to divert his mind from the unpleasant realities of his new position, but also laid the groundwork for his new glassmaking activity==casting glass by the cire perdue (lost wax) process.

In Glass, The Smithsonian Illustrated Library of Antiques prepared by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum by Paul Gardner, the author the identifies the transition to recognizing the glass blower rather than the glass factory. “A 1960s movement called Studio Glass is bringing exciting developments to hand-blown glass production. Dominick Labino and Harvey Littleton pioneered in this movement with the backing of Otto Wittmann, then director of the Toledo Museum of Art. Their concept was to bring recognition to the actual producer of the glass object-the glassblower.”

Symposium 2024
Carder Steuben Glass Association
20-21 September 2024
© Carder Steuben Glass Association Inc.